Mouse enabled phone

ABSTRACT

A telephone device includes a housing, a microphone, a loudspeaker and an auxiliary input device coupled to the housing. The auxiliary input device generates output in response to user manipulation. A controller within the housing is coupled to the microphone, loudspeaker and auxiliary input device. The controller is responsive to output of the auxiliary input device to enable a caller to expose and invoke advanced or special features of the telephone device.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to telephony and in particularto a telephone device that is responsive to output generated by anauxiliary input device such as a mouse to enable a user to invokeadvanced or special features of the telephone device without requiringuse of the telephone device keys.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Advances in telephony equipment have led to a significant increase inthe options and features available to users. It is common for telephonedevices to include advanced or special features such as conference, calltransfer, call trade, etc. that can be accessed and invoked by pressingsoft and/or hard keys on the telephone devices. Many of these telephonedevices have layered soft key menus requiring users to navigate throughone or more screens before being presented with the menu containing thesoft key associated with the advanced or special feature of interest.Although sighted users find these telephone devices easy to use, this isnot the case for visually impaired users. For a visually impaired user,locating advanced or special feature keys and navigating through thelayered soft key menus requires extensive training. As will beappreciated, telephony equipment and telecommunications systems that areeasily used by visually impaired users are desired.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a novel atelephone device that is responsive to output generated by an auxiliaryinput device to enable a user to invoke advanced or special features ofthe telephone device without requiring use of the telephone device keys.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided atelephone device comprising:

a housing;

a microphone;

a loudspeaker;

an auxiliary input device coupled to said housing, said auxiliary inputdevice generating output in response to user manipulation;

a controller within said housing, said controller being coupled to saidmicrophone, loudspeaker and auxiliary input device, said controllerbeing responsive to output of said auxiliary input device to enable acaller to invoke features of said telephone device.

Preferably, the microphone and loudspeaker are accommodated in a handsetcoupled to the housing and wherein the auxiliary input device is a mousecoupled to housing. The controller stores a map for mapping output ofthe mouse to features of the telephone device. The controller makesspecial features of the telephone device available for selection (i.e.exposes) in response to right, left, short and long mouse clicksallowing a user to select the exposed features using the mouse.

Preferably the controller initiates a call to a voice recognitionfacility in response to output of the mouse when the telephone device isidle. It is also preferred that the controller automatically initiates acall to the voice recognition facility when the telephone device goesoff hook and output is received from the mouse.

Preferably, the controller is also responsive to output of the mouse toenable a caller to navigate through menus of a voice-mail facility. Thecontroller stores a map between menu selections of the voice-mailfacility and mouse clicks.

Preferably, the auxiliary input device is a mouse and auxiliary inputdevice output is generated in response to mouse clicks. It is alsopreferred that auxiliary input device output is generated in response toleft, right, short and long mouse clicks.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is providedin a telephone device including a housing, a microphone, and aloudspeaker, the improvement comprising:

an auxiliary input device coupled to the housing that generates outputin response to user manipulation; and

a controller coupled to the microphone, loudspeaker and auxiliary inputdevice, the controller exposing and invoking features of said telephonedevice in response to output of the auxiliary input device.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention there isprovided a method of initiating telephone device special featurescomprising the steps of:

mapping special features of a telephone device to auxiliary input deviceoutput;

in response to auxiliary input device output, determining the specialfeature associated therewith; and

invoking the determined special feature.

According to still yet another aspect of the present invention there isprovided a telecommunications system comprising:

a telephone switch; and

at least one telephone device coupled to said telephone switch, said atleast one telephone switch including:

-   -   a housing;    -   a microphone;    -   a loudspeaker;    -   an auxiliary input device coupled to said housing, said        auxiliary input device generating output in response to user        manipulation; and    -   a controller within said housing, said controller being coupled        to said microphone, loudspeaker and auxiliary input device, said        controller being responsive to output of said auxiliary input        device to enable a caller to invoke features of said telephone        device;

wherein, said telephone switch is responsive to output generated by saidat least one telephone device in response to said invoked features.

The present invention provides advantages in that a user can use theauxiliary input device to navigate through menus and/or invoke specialfeatures of the telephone device without requiring visual contact withthe telephone device. This of course makes the telephone deviceparticularly suitable for use by the visually impaired.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described more fullywith reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a telecommunications system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of a telephone device forming partof the telecommunications system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 a shows an example of mouse click to telephone device specialfeature mappings; and

FIG. 3 b shows an example of mouse click to voice-mail facility menumappings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Turning now to FIG. 1, a telecommunications system is shown and isgenerally identified by reference numeral 10. Telecommunications system10 allows a caller to initiate a telephone call to a desired party usingvoice recognition thereby to avoid the caller having to dial manuallythe desired party's telephone number. As can be seen, telecommunicationssystem 10 includes a private branch exchange (PBX) 12 coupled to atelephone device 14. Although only one telephone device 14 is shown,those of skill in the art will appreciate that this is for ease ofillustration only. PBX 12 is also coupled to a voice recognitionfacility 16, a voice-mail facility 18 and a public switched telephonenetwork (PSTN) 20.

Voice recognition facility 16 includes an applications server hosting avoice recognition application and a database that stores a list of namesand associated telephone numbers. The voice recognition application canbe developed from a server-based speech recognition development kit suchas those provided by Nuance, Speechworks, Phillips or Lucent forexample. Alternatively, the voice recognition application may be acomplete server-based application such as those provided by. MitelNetworks Corporation, Speechworks, Phillips or Locus for example.

The voice-mail facility 18 also includes an applications server hostinga voice mail application and a database that stores voice mail messagesand greetings left by callers.

The telephone device 14 is designed to facilitate use by a visuallyimpaired user. In the present embodiment, the telephone device 14 is aMitel SS400 series telephone set, such an a SS4125 or SS4150 telephoneset, and includes an RS-232 serial interface 90 (see FIG. 2) and aheadset jack (not shown). An auxiliary input device 24 in the form of atwo-button mouse is coupled to the serial interface 90 via a cable 26. Aheadset 28 is shown coupled to the headset jack.

Turning now to FIGS. 1 and 2, the telephone device 14 will now befurther described. As can be seen, telephone device 14 includes ahousing 42 with a cradle that accommodates a handset 44 having a speaker44 a and a microphone 44 b. A hookswitch 46 is associated with thecradle. A display 48 that presents soft keys and keyboards 50 and 52having hard keys are provided on the housing 42. A loudspeaker 54 and amicrophone 56 are also provided to enable “hands-free” calls to becarried out.

Disposed within the housing 42 are the telephone device electronicsgenerally identified by reference number 60. As can be seen, thetelephone device electronics 60 include a controller 62 coupled to acommunications line 64 via an audio bus 66 and a line interface 68. Thecommunications line 64 leads to the PBX 12.

A digital signal processor (DSP) 70 communicates with the controller 62and with a pair of coder/decoders (Codecs) 72 and 74. Codec 72 iscoupled to the speaker 44 a and the microphone 44 b of the handset 42via amplifiers 80 and 82 respectively. Codec 74 is coupled to theloudspeaker 54 and the microphone 56 via amplifiers 84 and 86respectively. The DSP 70 provides volume control, hands-freefunctionality, tone generation, and other necessary functionality forthe operation of the telephone device 14. The controller 62 communicateswith the display 48 and the keyboards 50 and 52, and connects either oneor both voice channels of the telephone device 14 to the line interface68 in response to a user initiated call or an incoming call that isanswered.

The controller 62 is also coupled to the serial interface 90 and isprogrammed to interpret input from the auxiliary input device 24, inthis embodiment, left and right mouse clicks and long and short mouseclicks. In response to mouse clicks received from the auxiliary inputdevice 24, the controller 62 exposes functions of the telephone device14 and invokes selected functions to provide a visually impaired userwith the ability to initiate telephone calls and to take advantage ofother telephone device features (hereinafter referred to as “special”features) without requiring visual assistance. Specifically, thecontroller 62 is programmed to enable a visually impaired user to usethe auxiliary input device 24 to establish a connection between thetelephone device 14 and the voice recognition facility 16, to establisha connection between the telephone device 14 and the voice-mail facility18, to terminate a call, to initiate a call transfer, to complete a calltransfer, to trade a call, to form a conference call, to split aconference call, to answer a camped call and put an active call on holdand to return a call on hold to an active call. Further specifics of theoperation of the telephone device 14 will now be described.

When an auxiliary input device 24 is coupled to the serial interface 90,and the handset 44 of the telephone device 14 is lifted from the cradleto go off-hook, or if input is received from the auxiliary input device24 and the telephone device 14 is on-hook and idle (signifying ahands-free speaker or headset call), rather than providing the callerwith a dial tone via the DSP 70, the controller 62 automatically placesa call to the voice recognition facility 16. Once a call between thevoice recognition facility 16 and the telephone device 14 has beenestablished, the voice recognition application plays a canned voicemessage prompt to the caller asking the caller to speak the name ortelephone number of the party to be called. If the caller speaks thename of the party to whom the call is to be routed, the voicerecognition application compares the spoken name with the names in thedatabase list. When a match is determined, the voice recognitionapplication echoes the name in the database that is associated with thespoken name. If the caller says nothing within a certain period of time,the voice recognition application conveys the telephone numberassociated with the spoken name to the PBX 12 to allow the call to berouted. If the name echoed by the voice recognition application isincorrect, the caller can re-start the process by saying “cancel” andthen repeating the name of the party to be called.

Similarly, if the caller speaks the telephone number of the party towhom the call is to be routed, the voice recognition applicationcompares the spoken telephone number with the telephone numbers in thedatabase list. When a match is determined, the voice recognitionapplication echoes the name in the database that is associated with thespoken telephone number. If the caller says nothing within a certainperiod of time, the voice recognition application conveys the telephonenumber to the PBX 12 to allow the call to be routed. If the name echoedby the voice recognition application is incorrect, the caller canre-start the process by saying “cancel” and then repeating the telephonenumber of the party to be called.

When the PBX 12 receives the telephone number from the voice recognitionfacility 16, the PBX conveys the telephone number to the PSTN 20 if theparty being called is external to enable the telephone call to becompleted. In this manner, the auxiliary input device 24 enables avisually impaired user to initiate a call using voice recognitionwithout requiring the user to seek visual assistance.

The controller 62 is also programmed to interpret right and left as wellas long and short duration mouse clicks to enable a caller to advancethrough menu selections of the voice-mail facility 18 and to enable thecaller to take advantage of special features of the telephone device 14.Specifically, a map between mouse clicks and voice-mail menus and a mapbetween telephone device special features and mouse clicks are stored inthe controller 62. In the present embodiment, short duration mouseclicks are those having a duration up to 0.7 seconds and long durationmouse clicks are those having a duration greater than 1.0 seconds.

FIG. 3 a shows exemplary mappings between mouse clicks and sometelephone device special features. As can be seen, when the telephonedevice 14 is idle and a short left mouse click is received, thecontroller 62 places a call to the voice recognition facility 16allowing the user to make a telephone call. If the telephone device 14is ringing, the controller 62 answers the incoming call in response to ashort left mouse click. During dialing of a call, if the user enters along left mouse click, the call being dialed is dropped by thecontroller 62.

While a call is in progress, the transfer/conference feature is invokedby the controller 62 in response to a short left mouse click. The callin progress is dropped by the controller 62 in response to a long leftmouse click. When the transfer/conference feature is invoked and a callwith a party is in progress, the controller 62 places the party on holdand presents the caller with a dial tone. With the dial tone present, ifa long left duration mouse click is received by the controller, thecontroller 62 returns the held call to active.

If the user completes a call to a third party and a ring back signal isreceived, the controller 62 returns the caller back to the held call inresponse to a long left mouse click. The controller 62 connects the twooutside parties in response to a short duration right mouse click. Ifthe call to the third party is answered, the controller 62 trades thecall in response to a short left mouse click, returns the call back tothe held party in response to a long left mouse click, releases the callin response to a short right mouse click, and conferences all parties inresponse to a long right mouse click.

If the caller is the master of the conference (i.e. set the conferencecall up), the controller 62 invokes the transfer/conference feature inresponse to a short left mouse click. The controller 62 drops the masterfrom the call in response to a long left mouse click and splits the callin response to a long right mouse click. If a telephone conversation isin progress and a call is waiting, controller 62 trades the existingcall with the waiting call in response to a short left mouse click.

FIG. 3 b shows exemplary mappings between mouse clicks and menus of thevoice-mail facility 18. As can be seen, when a call is made to thevoice-mail facility 18 alternate short left and right mouse clicks areused to enter a password. A long left mouse click drops a call to thevoice-mail facility 18 while a duration right mouse click signifiescomplete entry of the password. Once a connection to the voice-mailfacility 18 has been made, the play menu can be opened by entering ashort left mouse click. Messages can be saved or skipped by enteringlong right clicks. Entering a short duration mouse click opens thegreetings menu.

When the play menu is opened and a message is being played, a short leftmouse click rewinds the message. A long left mouse click deletes themessage, a short right mouse click fast forwards the message and a longleft mouse click saves the message.

When the greeting menu is opened, a short left mouse left click playsthe caller's primary greeting. A long left mouse click drops the call tothe voice-mail facility 18. A short right mouse click plays the caller'sconditional or secondary greeting. A long right mouse click allows thecaller to swap the primary and conditional greetings.

As will be appreciated, the controller 62 accesses the appropriate mapsto facilitate control of the telephone device 14 via the auxiliary inputdevice 24. In this manner, a visually impaired caller has easy access toenhanced features of the telephone device 14 and can easily navigatethrough the voice-mail facility 18 without requiring visual assistance.A mouse is easy for a visually impaired user to locate and isergonomically designed for ease of use without requiring visual contact.In view of this, by mapping mouse clicks to special features of thetelephone device, a standard ergonomic substitute for invoking telephonedevice special features is made available.

Although a two-button mouse has been described, those of skill in theart will appreciate that a three-button mouse or other similar auxiliaryinput device that is easily controlled by a visually impaired user canbe used. Also, those of skill in the art will appreciate that themappings shown in FIGS. 3 a and 3 b are exemplary in nature. Alternativemouse click to telephone device special feature mappings may be used.

Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention has beendescribed, those of skill in the art will appreciate that variations andmodifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scopethereof as defined by the appended claims.

1. A telephone device comprising: a housing; a microphone; aloudspeaker; an auxiliary input device coupled to said housing, saidauxiliary input device generating output in response to usermanipulation; a controller within said housing, said controller beingcoupled to said microphone, loudspeaker and auxiliary input device, saidcontroller being responsive to output of said auxiliary input device toenable a caller to invoke features of said telephone device, whereinsaid controller stores a map mapping output of said mouse to specialfeatures of said telephone device, wherein said microphone andloudspeaker are accommodated in a handset coupled to said housing andwherein said auxiliary input device is a mouse coupled to said housing,and wherein said controller is responsive to right, left, short and longmouse clicks.
 2. A telephone device according to claim 1 wherein saidcontroller initiates a call to a voice recognition facility in responseto output of said mouse when said telephone device is idle.
 3. Atelephone device according to claim 2 wherein said controllerautomatically initiates a call to said voice recognition facility whensaid telephone device goes off hook and output is received from saidmouse.
 4. A telephone device according to claim 1 wherein saidcontroller is responsive to output of said mouse to enable a caller tonavigate through menus of a voice-mail facility.
 5. A telephone deviceaccording to claim 4 wherein said controller stores a map between menuselections of said voice-mail facility and mouse clicks.
 6. A telephonedevice according to claim 4, wherein said controller is responsive toalternate short left and right mouse clicks for user entry of a passwordfor said voice-mail facility.
 7. A telephone device according to claim 6wherein said controller stores a map between menu selections of saidvoice-mail facility and mouse clicks.
 8. A method of initiatingtelephone device special features comprising the steps of: mappingspecial features of a telephone device to auxiliary input device output;in response to auxiliary input device output, determining the specialfeature associated therewith; and invoking the determined specialfeature, wherein said auxiliary input device is a mouse and wherein saidoutput is generated in response to mouse clicks, and wherein saidauxiliary input device output is generated in response to left, right,short and long mouse clicks.